I froze motionless.
Silili shivered with fear. She took a step into the field, and then retreated back to the shadow of the trees. Whether she remembered me at all, I could not say. But she was as wild and shy as any creature of the woods, and I knew that a sudden movement on my part would drive her away and I might never see her again. So slowly, very slowly, I crouched down and groped with a blind hand for the wicker basket in which I had brought my midday meal.
I opened its lid and reached within. Then I stood.
I held out a yam to her. "Janari," I said. This was our new word for food.
Timidly, she approached. Three times, she almost bolted and ran. But at last she snatched the yam from me and ravenously began eating it.
"Janari," I repeated insistently. "Janari!" And finally, "Janari," she replied.
It was a beginning.
All this happened long ago, when I was young and there was only one language and People did not die. All things were new in those days and the world was not at all like what it is today.
Holiday
M. Rickert
Mary Rickert grew up in Fredonia, Wisconsin. When she was eighteen she moved to California, where she worked at Disneyland. She still has fond memories of selling balloons there. After many years (and through the sort of "odd series of events" that describe much of her life), she got a job as a kindergarten teacher in a small private school for gifted children. She worked there for almost a decade, then left to pursue her life as a writer. Her most recent book is collection Map of Dreams.
The best fiction challenges us in some way. The frankly disturbing dark tale that follows, which originally appeared in Subterranean Magazine, was one of the most challenging published this year.
She says her name is Holiday, but I know she's lying. I remember her face. It was all over the news for weeks, years even, but of course she doesn't know that. I briefly consider telling her, saying something like, "Hey, did you know you're a star?" But that would necessitate bringing up the subject of her death, and I'm not clear if she knows that she's a ghost, or that almost everyone thinks her parents killed her. That doesn't seem like the kind of thing any kid should have to hear, so instead I say, "Holiday? That's a pretty name."
Her body starts jerking in a strange way as she moves across my bedroom floor, her arms held out, her hands moving to some secret rhythm, and I think she's re-enacting her death, the way some ghosts do, until I realize that she's tap dancing, her blonde curls bouncing, that little-Miss smile plastered across her face, bright red like she just finished eating a cherry Popsicle. I figured she came to tell me who offed her, but instead she came to dance and tell me lies.
"Why don't you come here," I pat beside me on the bed. Just like that she's gone. Like I'm a pervert or something. Poor dumb kid.
That's all there is until about a week later. This time I'm asleep on the couch and she wakes me up, singing a country western song. She's wearing a black cowboy hat with a big gold star on the front, a little black and red-fringed skirt, a denim shirt with silver buttons, and red tasseled cowboy boots that come about halfway up her calves. She looks pretty cute. She's singing in the dulcet tone of someone twice her age, and right away I understand the confusion people felt about her, the strange aura of sexuality that comes off her and shouldn't. When she sees me watching, she waves, her little fingers slightly bent, but she doesn't miss a beat, even when she winks.
This is so freaking weird I don't know what to do so I wait until she's finished and then I applaud.
She curtsies, holding out the skirt with the tips of her tiny fingers; her perfect blonde curls undisturbed by her dance and song.
"So," I say, "Holiday, right?"
She nods, her red lips smirked.
"You hungry?" I pick up the half-full bag of Doritos on the coffee table in front of the couch and extend it towards her. She shakes her head. "Wanna watch a movie?" I ask. She just stands there, staring at me, squinting slightly, looking like she just might start crying, as though I have awoken her from some dream about Barbie dolls and Christmas and a perfect life, into this reality of being murdered and stuck, for all eternity, at age six, tap dancing forever. I look through my DVD collection: Kill Bill, Seven Samurai, The Shining, Howard Stern's Private Parts (severely underrated and underappreciated, by the way), City of Women, My Architect, Wild Weather caught on Tape (a gift from an old girlfriend), and The Wet Women of California, which, swear to God, I had forgotten all about. None of it exactly seems like the sort of thing to watch with a six-year-old murdered kid, so instead I turn on the TV and settle on the cooking channel, but I guess it wasn't the right choice because next thing I know, I'm sitting alone watching this chick with a giant smile, pouring liquid over hamburger meat. "Hey," I say to the air, "come back, we don't have to watch this." But of course no one answers and no one appears. I pick up one of the DVDs, and put it in, just to get rid of the headache I feel coming on. In two seconds, I'm watching naked big-breasted women dive into the ocean, roll in the sand, and frolic with the waves and each other. I drink my warm beer and start to play with myself until I get the creepy feeling that maybe she's still in the room. I take my hand out of my pants, flick off the DVD, and turn over, my face pressed against the couch.
The next day I go to the library. She was only a local story for a few hours before the national media came to town; there's a whole shelf devoted just to her. I page through the books and look at all the pictures. Yep, it's her all right. I don't check out the books, just in case she comes back. I don't want her to see them and get scared or anything. I don't know why she's coming to see me, but I want her to come back. When I read about how her father found her, wrapped in a blanket, as though someone was worried she would be cold, but with that rope around her neck, and all the rest, I feel like something inside me wakes up, and it's not a completely disturbing feeling. I spend the whole day at the library and when I leave I'm tired, and hungry, but before I do anything else, I go to Wal-Mart and buy the boxed collection of Shirley Temple DVDs. They were her favorite. Next time she comes, I'm going to be prepared. Sarah Vehler, who was in my brother's class in high school, is the checkout girl. She's gained about five hundred pounds since then and I barely recognize her, but she recognizes me just fine. "I didn't know you have kids," she says. What am I supposed to do, tell her I've got a ghost? Instead, I just shrug. Maybe that was a mistake. I don't know. This was all new territory for me. I tried to do what was right.
When Terry, my agent, calls to see how the book is coming along, I tell him it's just fine. "But hey," I say, "I'm thinking of going in another direction, sort of."
"Shoot," Terry says.
I stumble around a bit and even though he's thousands of miles away, I know he's chewing his Nicotine gum faster and faster until finally he says, "Listen, just give it to me in a sentence, all right?"
"I wanna write about—" and I say her name.
"Who?"
For a long time she was everyone's little girl. The whole country followed her story and wanted vengeance for what was done to her, but now, hardly anyone even remembers her name.
"Oh, wait, the little Miss America kid, right? What's she got to do with anything? Did your parents know her parents or something?"
"Well, not exactly, but—"
"Don't blow this, OK? Memoir writing isn't what it used to be, all right? Just stick to the facts, make sure it's all documented."
"But I—"
"Stick to your own story. You got enough there to keep you busy, right?"
"But Terry," I say, "when I think about her, I mean, don't you think what happened to her was a real travesty?"
"Travesty? Right. Of course it was. But what happened to you was a real travesty too, wasn't it? Your whole family torn apart by false accusations, your father dying in prison for something he didn't do. That's the travesty you know. That's the one you can write about."
"I just think—"
"Ok, I know what's happening here. S
omething in your mind, in your sub-conscious is trying to distract you from writing this, am I right? Huh?"
"I guess," I say, glancing at my computer.
"Tell you what, why don't you just take a couple of days? Give yourself a break. Watch movies. Take walks in the park. Get laid. Take some time off, is what I'm saying, not weeks or anything but you know, take a few days, then you can come back to this all refreshed, OK?"
"OK," I say.
"Who cares if you're a few days late, right?"
"Right."
"Just forget about the kid," he says. "She's not your story."
We say goodbye and I walk over to the computer and click on the file. I stare at the blank screen, certain that if I could just come up with the title, I could probably sail through the whole thing. But the title is illusive. Instead I take Terry's advice and watch a movie, several in fact. Shirley Temple in black and white, highly, highly underrated. I don't even know when she appears. But suddenly we are sitting on the couch, laughing. It feels so good to laugh like that I decide not to say anything. I don't want to scare her off. I don't know when she left. I fell asleep and when I woke up, she was gone.
The next day I sit staring at the screen on my computer for two hours, I know it sounds like an exaggeration, but I timed it. I try several titles. "My Father's Rules." "I Am Not His Son." "Rising Above the Prison He Resides In." "Last Chance." You get the picture, right? Crap. I click off the computer and take Terry's advice. I go to the park.
They are so young. So perfect, with their perfect skin and little teeth and they are dirty, and bratty, and crying, and laughing, and completely absorbed by the sand in the sandbox, or the need to traverse the bars, dangling above the dangerous ground, holding tight, and it's obvious it hurts, but they are determined, stubborn, wild, beautiful. I could watch them for hours, but instead I just watch for a little while, I know too well what the grownups will think about someone like me, a young man, all alone, watching children play. I turn away, hunched against the sudden cold, walking slowly, soon no longer able to hear the laughter and the sound of their voices, shouting names, or shouting nonsense.
God, how I envy them.
When I get home my brother is standing on my porch, hunched into his jacket, his hands in his pockets. "Hey," he says.
"Hey," I say. "What's up?"
He shrugs, glances at my door, and then gives me that pretend smile of his.
"I don't have any," I say.
"What? Oh, that hurts, bro," he says. "I'm sincerely hurt. I just thought, you know, I'd stop by."
I nod, but I do it with a smirk so that he knows I know the truth even if we are going to play this game. I take the key out of my pocket and let us into the house.
"Christ," he says.
"What?"
"Don't you ever clean up after yourself? Mom would shit if she saw this."
"Well, she's not going to see it, all right? We both know that. What do you want?"
He shrugs, but he's casing the joint. I'm a writer. I notice these things.
"Man, I'm just so hurt, bro," he says. "What, you think I only come when—"
"Yeah," I say. "Yeah, I do."
We stand there, staring at each other, then he shrugs and walks into my living room, sits on the couch—I'm only half paying attention—he picks up the remote control. "Wait," I say, but it's too late: Shirley Temple is dancing across the screen, all dimples and innocence.
I don't know what to do so I just stand there.
He's laughing so hard, he's bent over at the waist, and I start laughing too, and that's when he jumps up and grabs me by the collar and pushes me against the wall.
"I should fucking kill you," he says.
"It's not like that. I'm doing some research."
"Fucking pervert."
"I'm not the one," I say, only 'cause I'm desperate, only 'cause he's got this look in his eyes like he might really kill me.
He pushes me harder into the wall. He leans against me. "What did you say?"
"I'm not the one he liked most," I say, and he lets go as if I'm on fire. For a moment we are just standing there, breathing heavy and staring at each other. I try to make it right. I reach over to touch his shoulder but he jerks away.
He wipes his hand through his hair, licks his lips, and then wipes them with the back of his hand, and his eyes stay cold.
"Come on," I try again.
He leans toward me, like he would kill me if he could stand to touch me. He speaks, real slow, breathing onion into my face: "But you're the one who's grown up to be just like him."
"It's fucking research," I shout. He nods, like, sure, he doesn't believe me. He walks out of my house, my fucking addict brother, thinking he's got it all together and that I'm the one falling apart. I lock the door behind him, and when I turn, she's there, tap dancing across the kitchen in the outfit that caused all the controversy, the one with the feathers, and the black net stockings. "Oh, hi," I say, "Did you catch any of that?"
She pirouettes in a furious twirl, a great flurry of tapping feet, and another twirl; I am sincerely amazed and clap until my hands feel raw. She smiles and smiles and then waves her arm, like a magician's assistant, and that's when I see the other little girl. She's taller, her skin is black, her hair in two ponytails high on her head, she's dressed just like a regular kid, a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. "Hi," I say. "What's your name?"
She smiles, but it is a shy smile, her lips closed.
"Her name is Holiday too."
I nod, puzzling this out.
"And today is her birthday."
I turn to the girl who looks up at me with her beautiful black eyes.
"Your birthday?"
Both girls nod solemnly.
"Well, I don't . . .let me see what I can find. I wasn't expecting . . ." I rummage through the kitchen drawers and cabinets, making excuses all the while. "I wish I had known, I'm just so unprepared. A birthday? If I had known, I would have, I mean, balloons and cake . . ." The girls look up at me, bright-eyed. "But I'm sorry, I don't, this is the best I can, Happy Birthday," I say, and set a plate on the table. In the middle of the plate is a jelly sandwich, and in the center of the sandwich is the stub of a lit candle left over from when I was still trying to impress dates. The whole thing looks pretty lame but the girl claps all the same. She tries valiantly to blow the candle out, and then they both try, and after a while they just look up at me, and I do it for them.
I'm not sure what to do next so I ask them if they want to watch Shirley Temple movies, and we go into the living room and sit on the couch, and I think they had a good time, though in the morning I discover the jelly sandwich untouched on the plate. It's stale but I eat it just the same, sitting in front of the computer, searching the Internet sites of missing and murdered children, looking for the birthday girl, but I never do find her.
Suddenly it's like I'm running some kind of day care center for dead kids. She keeps bringing them to me, I don't know why. We watch Shirley Temple movies, though she's the one who likes them best, and, I have to admit, she can be pretty bratty about it at times. Actually, they all can be pretty bratty. They're little kids, what can I say? They fight over which movie to watch, they run up and down the stairs, they jump off the kitchen table and the back of the couch. I recognize some of them. Without asking, I know some of their names. I mean, come on, some of these kids are famous. Others, like the little black girl, I never do figure out. When they're all around, I sometimes think I'm going to lose it, but when no one comes, when it's just me, all alone, staring at the computer again, still trying to find the perfect title, the perfect little phrase to describe what happened to my family, I miss their smelly mouths, their waxy ears, their noise, their demands, their little bodies twisted in odd positions of sleep and play, and I miss their laughter, the gorgeous sound of their laughter. Her dancing. I miss her dancing. And I miss her, most of all.
But she says it's getting boring at my house. She says it's too noisy. She say
s she might not come around anymore and when I ask her to dance she just shakes her head, no; she doesn't feel like it. That's when I say, without thinking about it or anything, why don't we have a party, and she says, "You mean like a jelly sandwich with a candle stuck in it?" (I told you, she can be bratty.) But I say, no, I mean like a big party, with balloons and party hats and papier-mâché streamers, would you like that? "And a Christmas tree?" she asks. Well, I wasn't really thinking of that but I can tell she wants one so I say sure. She smiles. "And big red Valentine's hearts?" I say, all right. "And Easter Baskets? And chocolate eggs?" And I say sure, of course, it'll be a holiday party, an every holiday party, and I don't say this part, but you know, for all the ones they've missed. She gives me a big hug then, her little arms tight around my neck and she kisses me right on the mouth.
I buy red, green, orange, and black streamers, balloons that have "Happy Birthday" printed on them, a paper tablecloth with turkeys and pilgrims on it. I get a seventy-five percent discount on the scarecrow, the ceramic pumpkin, and a clown costume, but I have to pay a ridiculous price for the fake Christmas tree already decorated with lights and ornaments. I buy cupcakes, even though I'm not sure any of the dead kids eat, and I buy two kinds of paper plates, one with Barbie on them, and the other, with dinosaurs. I get several different kid DVDs (I have to admit even I'm getting a little sick of Shirley Temple) and a CD of Christmas classics.
Sarah Vehler is working again, she is standing there, chewing on a hangnail, and not checking anyone out but I stand in line behind a woman with two little kids, a boy and a girl. The boy is furiously sucking his thumb, and the girl is begging for candy. The woman, their mother, I assume, is ignoring them, paging through a People magazine. I smile at the little girl, and for just a second she stops asking for candy and stares at me. Her eyes remind me of beach glass. Sarah Vehler calls my name and when I look up, she waves me over. "Don't you have nothing better to do than stand in line all day?" she says. "Wow, looks like you're planning a full year of parties. How many kids you got anyway?" I shrug, and to change the subject tell her I like her earrings. I have long since learned that the real way to gain a woman's trust is to tell her you like her earrings but Sarah Vehler just looks at me like I said something crazy and of course that's when I realize she isn't wearing earrings. I laugh. "I mean last time," I say. "I remember the ones you had on last time, and I meant to tell you they were real nice." Then, things only get more ridiculous when she tells me she never wears earrings. "I'm sorry," I say, grabbing the bags and the box of cupcakes. "I thought it was you, but it must have been someone else." She just looks at me like she is thinking real hard, and then she says, "I saw your brother the other day and he says you don't have any kids at all."
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year-II Page 49